LIV Golf officials invited to Masters in latest showing of thawing in relations

LIV Golf representatives have been invited to the Masters for the first time, highlighting the thawing of tensions in the game’s great split.

LIV chief executive Greg Norman is not expected to appear and it remains up in the air whether Yasir Al-Rumayyan – the LIV chairman and governor of the £600 billion Saudi Public Investment Fund which bankrolls the breakaway league – will attend.

However, it is understood that at least one high-ranking LIV official will be under the famous oak tree in front of the clubhouse, where the sport’s power-brokers assemble.

It will be a symbolic moment with the PIF negotiations with the PGA Tour continuing in the background. Initially, Augusta National was resistant to LIV, but since the Tour announced its “framework agreement” with PIF last summer, there has been a more conciliatory tone from the majors.

Al-Rumayyan went to last year’s Open at Hoylake – where he linked up with R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers – and met with Tiger Woods last month alongside other player directors of the Tour’s policy board.

Hostilities reached such highs that for the previous two editions, Augusta revoked the invite to the chief executive of the Asian Tour, simply because he signed a £200 million 10-year deal with Golf Saudi. But Cho Minn Thant is back in the fold and has accepted the reinstated invite.

Of course, Jon Rahm, the reigning Masters champion, is a recent LIV capture having jumped ship for an upfront fee believed to be £400 million. The Spaniard was always critical of LIV’s 54-hole format and has been honest enough to confirm to the BBC that he still holds this opinion. Furthermore, the Spaniard believes a switch to the traditional format could assist in the negotiations.

“If there ever was a way where LIV could go to 72 holes I think it would help all of this argument a lot,” he said. “The closer I think we can get LIV Golf to some other things the better. I think it would be for some kind of unification to feed into a world tour or something like that. I don’t know if I’m alone in this, but I definitely wouldn’t mind going back to 72 holes.”

On the first day of practice at Augusta, Woods lit up proceedings with nine holes in the morning. He did not talk to the media, but it has become a Masters custom for his Monday playing partner to declare how well he performed and Will Zalatoris said: “He played great. He out-drove me a couple of times and is moving as well as he can be.”